Monday, October 24, 2016

The Hunt Part 3 - Follow Your Guts

After requesting an online quotation I proceeded to book a visit at Prostock Racing to inspect the Sparkling Silver model they had on display.Located in Saitama, this is a well known dealer in the GT-R community: a regular exhibitor at the annual Rs Meeting, they specialize in sourcing unmolested RB26 powered cars. They also provide full maintenance and tuning services, high-end aftermarket part sales as well as building track-oriented demo cars.

I had some very positive feelings about this visit and the legitimacy of the shop: for starters, they are the only dealer I have seen posting online detailed pictures of all the cars underneaths, as well as service history receipts and manuals. They also religiously document all the work they do through daily updates on their blog and have been featured by specialized press many times.Upon my arrival I was greeted by the Manager, Takada-san, who promptly showed me the garage. And the lineup that presented once I entered the storage area just confirmed my first impression: a BNR34 V-spec II Nür (the car I came to inspect), a white BNR34 M-spec, a blue BCNR33 LM version and a plethora of R32 in tip-top condition, including a 35,000km immaculate V-spec II and some rare Nismo editions, all sitting under the same roof. Now we are talking!

Nice lineup

BCNR33 LM Edition

"My" car was obviously the main attraction and I immediately proceeded with the inspection. The exterior was in excellent shape with no retouch on the paint and no accidents; although it was listed as "full stock" the LED Nismo GT tail lights were a welcomed bonus. The car was advertised as garaged by the previous owner: the spotless NACA duct on the dry carbon bonnet, the still soft window rubber seals and absence of whitening on the plastic window pillars and front diffuser clearly supported the fact.

Sparkling Silver in the flesh

NISMO GT Tail Lights

Spotless!

One detail that caught my eye was the massive IMPUL exhaust: not that I am a fan of the stock OEM one, but I was wondering about the nature of its presence. Takada-san promptly informed that this was actually an option offered by the Nissan dealers to owners that wanted to upgrade without voiding the warranty. To my delight the previous owner kept the receipt and certificate of authenticity from the dealership - now that's a nice touch!

Dealer option exhaust

Original NISMO certificate: note the old school logo!

The front bumper presented some stone chipping, which at the beginning obviously bothered me, but eventually turned into a "positive". The more I looked at the car, the more I thought that most of its kilometers were done on the expressway rather than during short stints of spirited driving. Although this is purely my personal speculation I did notice how the shift knob was still in decent shape despite the 79,000km on the odometer (less shifting due to highway driving perhaps?) as well as the seats and carpets; I have seen these parts in far worse shape on many lower mileage models.

300 km/h scale meter

Interior check

The car was equipped with a Kenwood infotainment system and a very handy back camera: again, these are Nissan dealer options.The engine bay (as well as the whole car) was perfectly cleaned and, although this may have not allowed me to assess the car in its actual condition as kept by the previous owner, it helped exposing potential flaws. To my relief I couldn't find anything wrong with the engine bay: it was perfect and looked almost as new.

Engine bay

Only one thing needed fixing: the turbo boost sensor was broken and the MFD couldn't display any activity in that area. Other than that and a few minor scratches on the cheap 90's Nissan interior plastic, the car was really spotless.One of the biggest selling points of the car is definitely the fact that it was serviced at Nissan dealerships for all its life: the service book folder is filled with pages and pages of receipts ad all the service history, all done pretty regularly at a Nissan Prince dealership. This gave me peace do mind the the car has been looked after by competent technicians and that all the parts installed are OEM. Having witnessed the quality of the service at Nissan Prince myself I can't be anything but happy with it.

Pages on pages!

Certificate for the Kenwood infotainment system

So, despite the pretty long post, I have to admit that I pretty much bought the car on the spot: after a second inspection I proceeded to pay the deposit and collect the car few weeks later, completed with tire alignment, oil change and the turbo boost sensor replaced.The night of the collection day I met with Dino, who was test driving a Corvette Z06, and chased him down to Tatsumi Parking Area. Amazing memories and I still can't believe that I could finally tick the box of a 15 years old childhood dream!

Not bad for a first night ride uh?

And one final surprise was awaiting for me upon my late night return home: as I entered my building garage area I spotted a BNR34 M-spec Nür in Millenium Jade parked just 4 slots away from mine. Talk about coincidences!

2 comments:

Hello, I'm a frequent visitor/reader of your blog, and I am a huge fan of R34s. I am from a place where it is next to impossible to purchase one (LHD country). I just want to say that your posts are very good reads, especially for us readers who can only dream of owning an R34. Hope to see more R34 content from you mate, cheers and good day.

Thank you for stopping by and glad to hear you enjoy the content!I hear you, but if your dream is to own a R you shouldn't give up: I was in the same position 15 years ago, just a kid dreaming over low-resolution internet photos somewhere in northern Italy!

About Me

From hundreds of hours spent mastering the perfect lap on Gran Turismo to owning and driving a R34 GT-R V-spec II Nür in Tokyo.
This blog is to share my personal experience living and breathing Japan car culture.